Today a Ringing Sound Emitted from Right Rear Wheel Area

[Lightfoot]

Today, from work, I drove a few miles to go to lunch. After eating, I drove about a mile on city streets in EV mode on my way back to work. I then noticed a ringing sound seemingly coming from the right rear wheel area. The sound was somewhat similar to when your brake pads need changing, but I was not braking. It became louder and more pronounced as I continued driving. It became very loud and noticeable.  I switched to EV Later and Auto modes, thinking maybe the sound was coming from the battery. The sound continued. The sound stopped when I slowed and pulled over. I turned off the car and inspected it. I saw nothing amiss, albeit it was a cursory exterior inspection. 

 

I got back into the car and the noise came back as the car came up to speed. I then happened to drive over some railroad tracks going less than 25 mph and the ringing stopped. I have since driven around 20 miles. The sound has not yet returned.

 

I previously posted that I was concerned about my parking brake because I have experienced it not easily releasing automatically while going in reverse. I wonder if the noise might be related to a parking brake issue.

 

I'm pretty sure that I released the parking brake manually when I left from lunch and when I drove off after pulling over.

 

My new Fusion Energi Titanium is less than a month old with a little over 1,000 miles.

 

Thoughts? Advice? 

Edited August 20, 2014 at 07:18 AM by Lightfoot

[Russael]

My Expedition exhibited a noise like that once.  I pulled off the plastic wheel cover to expose the lug nuts and found that there was a metal cap held in place by a cotter pin, and that cap was moving around slightly.  I adjusted the cotter pin and the noise stopped.

 

As far as a ringing or jingling noise from the Fusion, I haven't had that.  I also have not removed the tires myself yet either.  It is possibly a washer moving around, or a bolt working its way loose.  Check your lug nuts and make sure they're tight (the most important thing).  If you want to get more involved, you could remove the tire and check the bolts that hold the brake caliper in place and make sure they're tight (they have a washer on them too, methinks).  If you don't find it then, roll it to the dealer and hope they can replicate it.

[FordTech]

Possiblty a small rock got kicked up and caught in the caliper/brake pad and was rubbing on the rotor. It may sound far fetched but it wouldnt be the first time I have seen it happen.

I am thinking this was probably your issue since it stopped after hitting some good bumps it probably dislodged the rock

[nascarnat]

I have a 2013 Energi Titanium with 7300 miles on it. I bought it with 5100 and almost immediately started hearing a brake noise (scraping while driving like you are describing). I took it in and they told me all 4 rotors were rusted on the inside and that the build up of rust was causing a rubbing while driving down the road. Awesome... So they scuffed the rotors up and it went away for a day or two. Now every day I get it up to speed, put it in neutral (the regen is not active in neutral from what I have heard) and ride the brakes for a while to try and scrub that rust off. Some days it works, some days it doesn't. The strange thing is, sometimes I hear the scrape under normal conditions when I first tap the brake pedal. If the brakes don't engage until you are down to 5-10mph, why would I hear it when I first step on the pedal going 40? Doesn't make sense to me. I am bringing it in again in a couple of weeks (first available appointment... bad news for ford that their service dept is that busy???) for another issue I will post a thread about in a minute, but will have them look at the brakes again at that time. Maybe they should have invested in ceramic rotors... no rust issues there. 

[murphy]

The friction brakes can be engaged at 40 mph.  Regen only braking takes a very light touch on the pedal.  If you don't get a braking score of 100 the friction brakes were used.

[HotLap]

Interesting information Murphy, I was wondering how the Regen braking worked in tandem with the friction brakes...I knew it was transmission based so the actual friction brakes are not responsible for the regen activity, but didn't know the actual balance between the regen and friction braking modes and that you could completely stop the car with only the regen braking (I just scored 100% on my braking activity this morning!)